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Wannabe Thief

That is a pretty snake! I can't tell if she is gravid, but if she is, maybe you should keep get for a while until she lays her eggs.
 
Rich Z said:
Well, here's another black rat snake story I have.

Many moons ago my parents moved (I was still living at home at the time) to Fallston in Harford County, MD and the house butted up against a stream with a rocky hill on the other side. The entire area was heavily wooded. I always spent time in the woods, so I quickly did some exploring in the new environment I now lived in. Found an old abandoned building (perhaps a hunters cabin?) up on that hill and there was a tree next to it that had a good population of really huge black rat snakes living in it. If I remember correctly, I believe I counted six of them at one time. I would often go over there and put my hand in the lower branches of the tree and flutter it like a bird in distress. That brought the snakes down to investigate and they never seemed to get tired of that game we played. I caught a few of them just to handle them and then just released them back into the tree branches. Seems to me this went on all Spring and Summer into the early Fall.

Well, one day I went on over to the cabin and was devastated to find ALL of those black rat snakes laying dead on the ground underneath the tree. Looked like someone had shot them with a .22. I am surprised I didn't literally burst into flames I was so angry. Heck, it still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. I seriously think that had the person or persons who had done that still been there at the scene of the crime, there would have also been at least one dead human body laying on that hill as well that day. Maybe mine for charging at someone holding a loaded gun, but still, I doubt I could have controlled myself. Damn, my blood still boils just thinking about it, even though it's been so long ago. Anyway, I didn't go back to that cabin for a very long time afterwards.

So, bear this in mind. Any neighbors of yours finding a snake like that are likely not going to be as thrilled as you are about it. There are still a bunch of genetically lobotomized people around who feel that the only good snake is a dead snake. And they will make every effort they can to make every snake they find a "good" snake.
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That made me tear up. How horrible. We find so many snakes at our place, and I am so thankful that it was us who bought this place. Others have told us that if that was was their field and their land, those snakes would be gone. That would be a lot of dead hognoses.
 
I wonder if you could hand feed the wild population, every time one came around. I know you'd just be attracting them, so hopefully your chicks are safe. But wouldn't it be cool to see if they would learn to associate you with a meal, and seek you out?
 
Nanci said:
I wonder if you could hand feed the wild population, every time one came around. I know you'd just be attracting them, so hopefully your chicks are safe. But wouldn't it be cool to see if they would learn to associate you with a meal, and seek you out?
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Yeah, it's a given that we'll have snakes since the quail are out there. The quail roosters have started crowing, so that's only going to bring the predators in even more.

I hadn't considered that they might start associating us with food and seeking us out. I live in the middle of nowhere, and while I don't have *many* neighbors I do have a couple of neighbors. I should probably talk to all of them before I really start feeding the whole local black rat snake population.

Also, my roommate is in love with Thief #3 and wants to keep her regardless of whether she's gravid or not.
 
Oh lord... just went out to feed the quail, and Thief #1 has returned with a vengeance. It took both mouthwash and dunking him under water to get him off.
 

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IMO Black Rats are one of North America's most beautiful snakes! Which is probably why besides Corns I keep and breed them and offer them as pets. Been in love with them since I was a kid.
Great finds! I'm extremely jealous! :)
 

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If you want to mark them, the herpetologist who is helping Allidraggy suggests ceramic markers (Painters is one brand)-they're non-toxic (designed to be food safe for humans), but hold up pretty well until the next shed. Use a color that won't make the snake too visible and any threat display colors for that species (more a concern for lizards).

I'm starting to be afraid that one of our neighbors did something to kill off our Rough Earth snakes. Last summer, we often found a dozen or more on the edges of the sidewalks. Yesterday, I went out to flip those grass borders up so they'd go farther in before mowing, and only saw 2 tails heading in.
 
steve roylance said:
IMO Black Rats are one of North America's most beautiful snakes! Which is probably why besides Corns I keep and breed them and offer them as pets. Been in love with them since I was a kid.
Great finds! I'm extremely jealous! :)
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Hi Steve,

Is that a leucistic black rat snake in the last picture, and if so are you offering any for sale? I would love to get me a pretty little lucy black rat snake. Seeing all these awesome wild snakes has just strengthened my desire to have a tame one.
 
Black rats are awesome. My favorite morph is the white-sided ones, but the wild type is gorgeous too.

I once caught a big black rat right in our neighborhood. He did bite me at the moment I grabbed him, leaving a little scratch that barely bled, but after that first moment he was totally mild mannered. I kept him for maybe half an hour, mostly showing him off to the kids, then let him go. It wasn't too long after that that the wooded space about a block away was destroyed in order to put in a church. I never saw another snake in our neighborhood after that (I've previously seen several of at least 3 different species...just the black rat was the only one I was able to get my hands on) and it made me so sad to think they had probably all died when their habitat was destroyed, and I kind of wished I'd kept the one I caught.
 
Aozora said:
Hi Steve,

Is that a leucistic black rat snake in the last picture, and if so are you offering any for sale? I would love to get me a pretty little lucy black rat snake. Seeing all these awesome wild snakes has just strengthened my desire to have a tame one.
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Yep, it's a Black Rat Leucy :)
I will have some available around Dec or Jan.
Thanks!
 
Everyone keeps catching these mild mannered black rats, but all I can remember is them biting the living daylights out of me when I was catching them as a kid. There must be a particularly hateful population in the mountains of northeast Georgia!
 
I remember catching on while mountain biking in NC, and riding to catch up with my friends with the snake clinging around my neck! He was completely unphased, met everyone, then was ridden back to his place and released. I just love them.

This is my favorite thread! I hope you start marking them and documenting their visits!!
 
Well, guess who we found today?

Thief #1, back for the third time. He's currently cooling his jets in the spare cage. Thankfully no biting this time.

We'd just been commenting on how we haven't seen any black rat snakes lately. Looks like they've started showing back up.
 
We'll have quail out there until the end of September, so black rat snakes may be going into brumation at that point. We'll have to see what happens.

The quail are laying eggs now, so that may be drawing them in even more.
 
Bad news... My mom is taking care of the critters while I'm on vacation in New Orleans, and she told me that a big BRS, possibly Thief #2, managed to break into a cage and ate one of my hens. She released the snake, thankfully, and fixed where he broke in.
 
Silly BRS, doesn't it know it's supposed to be an excellent ESCAPE artist, not break-in artist! Sorry about the hen.
 
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